Do you guys get this in your blades as well? | Razer Insider

Do you guys get this in your blades as well?


Hi guys,

The output of the microphone on my blade gets this high pitch whining noise when I record something. Thus, I wanted whether others have the same issue or not. The way to reproduce this noise is shown in the following videos:





When you playback the audio you might need to increase volume to max.

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35 Replies

yes its the breathing of razer logo that causes it.
Hi iDATUS, sure I know that. We had the same discussion some time ago if you remember. My point here and what I am trying to find out is whether this is something generic (generic hardware failure) or I am the only one having this affect. Because if you ask me this shouldn't be happening and after two months being in contact with the support and "sending in" twice my unit for repair, the noise is still there.
I thought I recognised your name, see I used our chat to help, well it would have been if you were not the same person.
I thought you were ok with it, sent in twice for repair, your brave.
Cant remember did I try it myself?
You have told me that you have tried it and you didn't have this noise (I am not sure though whether you have maximized the volume when you were trying it, because sometimes in low volume it might not be audible). Yes, I have sent it twice. They even have replaced my screen the first time, that makes me think that it might be a generic hardware failure.
interesting, there is a Realtek audio console that's installed. the default is omnidirectional. the picture shows you it records from the back sound. try changing that
I tried all the options in the Microphone Effects, still there. In some less intense, is others more. Can you test again whether you have it or not (as I said try to increase the volume to max when you playback the recorded audio).

Also if others are watching this thread, I would appreciate if they can provide some feedback regarding their blades.
I have just done that and hear nothing. My ears may not be as good as yours as I am older, or I think I am.
When I have uploaded the recording you can listen to it yourself.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xsy39n69mzv6gsk/Recording%20%284%29.m4a?dl=0
Have a listen to that an let me know what you hear. sorry for any bumps.
Thanks a lot iDATUS, nope in your recording there isn't such a noise in the background. This is how it should be. I do not know what else to do.

I got back my unit yesterday from the second time that I've sent it for repair, after I found out that the problems was still there I have contacted them straight away and I am waiting for the support to come back to me (they told me in 24h). I have sent them a clear description how to reproduce the problem both written and with videos and both times they are sending me back the unit with the same issue. This is ridiculous, really poor support. I wonder what their repairing engineers are doing, they are not seeing the reports, they do not test the machine before they ship it back? Go figure, I was aware of the razer support issues but seriously this is in another level.
I think its more that the engineer gets told what to replace and they just do that. its the way of repairs.
Pain in the bum for you but its not bad Razer support, in fact I would say they have done a lot for your issue.
Just have to hang in on there. chin up and keep us informed and let me know if I can help further.
Thanks iDATUS, appreciated.

For the engineers sure you asked to replace something but then you need to check whether this solved the issue or not, there should be some responsible for that. You do not replace something and then you guess that everything is fine, and lets say the first time it might be overlooked, I agree that it might happen, what about the second time? The worse thing is that this is my working machine which I couldn't use for a full month overall due to shipments/repair time, etc. and now I am back to 0. Anyways, lets see.
Update:
So tomorrow I got back my unit after sending it for repair for the THIRD time. They informed me that they replaced the screen for the second time and I've noticed that they have also updated the bios firmware to v1.05. Thus, I was eager to test whether the issues has been fixed.

So I recorded the following video, do you believe that it is fixed (hint maximize your volume)?



I do not know but except in the Uni-directional mode in the Realtek Audio Console I can still hear it (when I am using linux though it is always noticeable since apparently it is not applying any sound effects).

To be honest I am feeling a bit of tired with all this back and forth. It is more than two months that I am fighting to solve this issue, where the majority of this time I was not able to use my machine (also in two months from now actually the warranty will expire, funny enough someone would say ohh you still have plenty of time to waste until the warranty expires :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye_:).

I've sent them the video back to the support, and again waiting to see what they will tell me this time. Sometimes I wish I haven't accidentally found this problem, most likely now I would be a happy user. I can also disable the "Breathing" mode and pretend that everything is fine and stop being obsessed with this thing but seriously come on for gods sake, I've paid 3k for this laptop.
oh, that is annoying. i hope you get it.
M-S-G
oh, that is annoying. i hope you get it.


I believe that I might be making a record here, regarding how many times you can RMA with razer support 😛
Userlevel 7
ThT86
Update:
So tomorrow I got back my unit after sending it for repair for the THIRD time. They informed me that they replaced the screen for the second time and I've noticed that they have also updated the bios firmware to v1.05. Thus, I was eager to test whether the issues has been fixed.

So I recorded the following video, do you believe that it is fixed (hint maximize your volume)?



I do not know but except in the Uni-directional mode in the Realtek Audio Console I can still hear it (when I am using linux though it is always noticeable since apparently it is not applying any sound effects).

To be honest I am feeling a bit of tired with all this back and forth. It is more than two months that I am fighting to solve this issue, where the majority of this time I was not able to use my machine (also in two months from now actually the warranty will expire, funny enough someone would say ohh you still have plenty of time to waste until the warranty expires :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye_:).

I've sent them the video back to the support, and again waiting to see what they will tell me this time. Sometimes I wish I haven't accidentally found this problem, most likely now I would be a happy user. I can also disable the "Breathing" mode and pretend that everything is fine and stop being obsessed with this thing but seriously come on for gods sake, I've paid 3k for this laptop.

Sorry to hear this. I noticed the fans are pretty loud on idle, maybe it took coil whine sound on recording process. Is that on performance mode? I don’t think my Blade 15 produce such noise on gpu demanding task like recording, unless there’re something work on background (cpu tasks).
@Joikansai nope it is not in performance mode, it is on automatic. It is not always that loud, most likely there should have beeen some tasks running on the background at that moment.

By the way you are located in Germany if I am not mistaken, right?
Actually my RMA department is the one in Hamburg (I am located in Munich for the moment). Razer collaborates with a computer IT store over there, I've read the bad comments on google for this store but I would never expect this. Anyways, I am curious to see what is next.
Userlevel 7
Have you tried recording on an external mic to see if the sound persists? I'm curious because this is a common thing when recording electronically. Long story short; feedback.
@Dekades yup tried it no problem. I would not say that it is feedback, because in that case it would be showing all the time. I might be wrong though.

In my case when I toggle the logo to the options "Static/off" this whining noise doesn't show up on the internal mic anymore, thus this confirms that it has to do something with the internal hardware. But considering and according to what the support team has reported to me that the technicians changed twice the screen I do not know what else to think, my guess would be the board.

Then the question goes why they did not check/replace the board, I mean I've sent the unit THREE times!!!!
Userlevel 7
ThT86
@Joikansai nope it is not in performance mode, it is on automatic. It is not always that loud, most likely there should have beeen some tasks running on the background at that moment.

By the way you are located in Germany if I am not mistaken, right?
Actually my RMA department is the one in Hamburg (I am located in Munich for the moment). Razer collaborates with a computer IT store over there, I've read the bad comments on google for this store but I would never expect this. Anyways, I am curious to see what is next.

I see, hope they can address it ASAP and you can have more time with the Blade LoL:wink_: Since you’re here in EU and it’s rtx model which’s at least from early last year you have 2 years guarantee base on our law, so at least you can a bit “relax” about your guarantee imo. Keep in touch with support in Hamburg I was using phone support and had good experience with them. Apparently now repair place is changed though I too hope it’ll be better. I live near Frankfurt btw.
ThT86
@dekades yup tried it no problem. I would not say that it is feedback, because in that case it would be showing all the time. I might be wrong though.

In my case when I toggle the logo to the options "Static/off" this whining noise doesn't show up on the internal mic anymore, thus this confirms that it has to do something with the internal hardware. But considering and according to what the support team has reported to me that the technicians changed twice the screen I do not know what else to think, my guess would be the board.

Then the question goes why they did not check/replace the board, I mean I've sent the unit THREE times!!!!

I was thinking different, I thought at first display change due mic that integrated on webcam, but most laptop webcam speaker and mic located on the board and you don’t have to change all board since they’re a model somewhere near speakers, I might be wrong though about this. You can ask support why was the display replaced, per phone.
@Joikansai nope I have only one year warranty, I've bought it from amazon.com last July since I wanted a US keyboard which you cannot get in razer EU and also at that point it was not possible to get a warranty extension neither from amazon nor from razer, which I wanted considering the crazy stories about the razer support. Anyways, I took the risk, pulled the trigger and here I am, one more crazy story for razer support.

Regarding the mic, it is embedded on the screen. The question is how to the heck is related to the logo LED. My guess is that the wiring that transmits the electrical signal for the two is close to each other (most likely on the cable strip that connects the screen with the board) and most likely the shielding not the proper one, thus you get the whine on the microphone output. Just a guess though.
Userlevel 7
Right, that's what I mean by feedback, not so much audio feedback but static feedback. The electrical components create a static buzz that can be picked up in the recording. It's a by-product of electronics for a myriad of reasons, one of them having to do with grounding and such. For example, my old iPod would make a static sound in my car if I was charging it at the same time. It was annoying.

My best guess is your guess as well; the wiring. You can switch out the boards and components all you want, chances are, you're going to encounter the same issue. It's not a "fault" in the manufacturing or components, it's more of a by-product.
@dekades sure I agree that it might be a "generic" harware issue and that's why I am asking other blade users here to see whether they are getting something similar on their mics, in that case let's say I might be able to swallow it easier though again I think we agree that it shouldn't be happening and there should be a better quality control either from the company that provides the screens to Razer or from Razer itself.

However so far no one else has posted that he has the same issue, thus this makes me to believe that I am the unlucky guy and as you can understand if I can have a unit which it doesn't has such issues I would like to have it. Especially when someone has paid a premium bunch of money for such a machine and I am within the warranty period.

As I said I would be curious to see if others have a similar issue, @iDATUS told me that he hasn't what about you and @Joikansai
Userlevel 7
ThT86
@Joikansai nope I have only one year warranty, I've bought it from amazon.com last July since I wanted a US keyboard which you cannot get in razer EU and also at that point it was not possible to get a warranty extension neither from amazon nor from razer, which I wanted considering the crazy stories about the razer support. Anyways, I took the risk, pulled the trigger and here I am, one more crazy story for razer support.

Regarding the mic, it is embedded on the screen. The question is how to the heck is related to the logo LED. My guess is that the wiring that transmits the electrical signal for the two is close to each other (most likely on the cable strip that connects the screen with the board) and most likely the shielding not the proper one, thus you get the whine on the microphone output. Just a guess though.

I see, in that term yes you’ll have only a year I thought you purchased here. Not quite sure too the mic placement usually Blade has similar placement in term audio with a MacBook which’s usually on near speakers that cable near ram yes it’s display and webcam cable so maybe mic is integrated on webcam so they have to exchange the display completely since it’s easier than changing the Modul separately by opening the display frame and glass, but since it’s changed twice the problem isn’t there, that’s also my though:wink_:
ThT86
@dekades
@dekades
Brief update, we are reaching to 5 months and still my issue is not resolved.

Razer, after me asking to come in contact with a senior representative offered to replace my blade (since apparently they cannot solve the issue), but guess what two weeks now they are trying to convince me to get a German (QWERZ) layout instead of the US (QWERTY) layout that I've bought. The excuse is, that they have run out of US layout stock (seriously?), which I do believe of course. My guess is that they want to empty their German layout stock considering that the Blade 2020 is announced already.

In any case I have kindly refused twrice since I do not want a German layout and I've not paid >3k to get something else. As I explicitly explain to them I could have bought my blade from Germany (with better warranty terms) but I didn't because they couldn't offer me the US layout which I explicitly wanted.

Now I have told them that if they cannot provide me with a US layout replacement unit, I would prefer my current unit to be sent in back and fixed.
It's definitely static feedback . My assessment for your situation is it is caused by some poor capacitor or resistors on your motherboard.

The mic is a cheap component and I'm sure they would had replaced it during rma. The mic is wired to the motherboard via a ribbon connector. Now if the mic wasn't the cause,. The feedback must be from the circuitry from the connector on motherboard to sound card dac chip. It's not going to be fixed until the motherboard is replaced as the audio chipset is soldered onto the board.

P/s. My Razer stealth 13 early 2019 model also has strange crackling sound from onboard speakers at full volume and that's from both left and right speakers , I can hear that when I put my ears to the speakers grille. I didn't send in for rma as I think after rma , the Razer technician will likely unable to fix this and create more problems